October 8/11 11:15 am - Tour of Beijing: Stage 3 and 4

A captivating third stage of the Tour of Beijing today provided a rare moment in world cycling when the final breakaway of the day – Irishmen Nicolas Roche (AG2R La Mondiale) and Philip Deignan (Radioshack) and Sky Pro Cycling’s Chris Froome – held off a rapidly closing peloton to fill the podium.

But whilst it was a special moment for them, it made little impact overall on the race as the net effect was that Roche and Deignan alone managed to claw back just a single second on general classification from race leader Tony Martin (HTC-Highroad).

And for most observers, and indeed for Martin himself, that seems to be the bike race done and dusted.

“It was the most difficult stage for sure but I expect the next two days to be for the sprinters.” Martin said after receiving the Tour leader’s prized red jersey for the third day in succession.

“I am confident that we can now defend the jersey until Sunday.”

But there was still plenty to celebrate for stage-winner Roche. As there would have been for UCI President Pat McQuaid who already had plenty of reasons to be happy about the WorldTour’s expansion into Asia even before two of his own countrymen were able to go one-two in a stage finish.

“Definitely I think it is my best win. I am so happy and delighted to be here in China,” Roche said.

“To win my first pro tour event is very special. This is the stage win I have been waiting two years for. It is such a great moment – those few seconds when you put your hands in the air.

“With (Jean Christophe) Peraud our GC man, I could take the risks on the climbs, and it worked out.”

But a humble Roche was far from claiming all the credit for himself, giving praise to both his team and his fellow breakaways.

“The team did a great job, just as they have for me all year but until today I couldn’t deliver for them. They played the game for me. Everyone rode for me 100 percent. This is a great way of thanking them.

“The last 15km went really quick. The three of us just rode. We kept each other motivated. There was not much thinking out there, just riding,” Roche said.

It was a fair assessment of the situation – as each had taken repeated hard turns at the front of the threesome – after Deignan had made a brief solo break with 12km to ride before being joined by the Roche and Froome.

Roche also has some respectful words for the team of the Tour leader.

“HTC did a great job to control the race. They let riders go but knew exactly when to bring them back,” Roche said.

There should be 143 riders on tomorrow’s start line in Yanqing Gui Chuan Square, after three failed to finish today’s stage. BMC Racing’s Yannick Eijssen was forced out of the race after fracturing a small bone beneath his nose in a freak accident, when wind gusts forced signage boards onto the course. Race organisers are investigating reports that a television helicopter may have caused the barrier to break loose.

Leopard-Trek pair, Joost Posthuma and Tom Stamsnijder also abandoned – each through illness.

Martin avoided any of the trouble that befell Eijssen on the final decent, praising the quality of the roads on what was a tricky and challenging stage.

“The road quality was really good. It was always safe, so I was always really confident,” Martin said.

Roche was also praiseworthy, adamant that he had held no doubts about coming to China beforehand.

“Because of the injuries I had, I already decided to ride the end of season races and I knew the Tour of Beijing was one where I could do well.

“It has WorldTour status and it deserves it. But it is brand new and will need a few tries before it gets it perfect. But so far, so good,” Roche said.

Today’s stage was certainly worthy of a place in any major cycling tour, with real challenges for the riders and stunning contrasts of scenery.

The opening category two ascent after just 15 km of the stage provided riders with a test from the beginning, ahead of the first of three category one climbs – to Gao Qin. Adriano Malori (Lampre), Lloyd Mondory (AG2R) and Ion Izzagirre (Euskaltel Euskadi) shared the top three points on the first two climbs.

The fast descent from the latter was memorable for several reasons not the least a spectacular short section of switchbacks half way down, that later prompted Roche to light-heartedly suggest would provide a great stage finish in future years.

After some more sympathetic phases through Liucun and across the Ming Tombs Reservoir and on the next climb to XieZishi in the Jundu Mountains it was one of the stage two escapees, Igor Anton (also Euskaltel), who returned to the fore. He grabbed not only the maximum 12 points on offer, but the king of the mountains polka dot jersey as a result.

In the battle for the sprint points crown, Vacansoleil’s Lieuwe Westra and Martijn Keizer joined the early break made by Malori, Mondory and Izagirre, and then dominated all three intermediate sprints – taking the top two places in each between them.

But after his third placing today, to add to his fourth in Wednesday’s time trial in Beijing Olympic Park, it is Froome who takes over the green jersey, with a lead of eight points over Roche.

There is also a new leader in the young rider classification with Radioshack’s Ben King in top spot after Sky’s Alex Dowsett failed to finish with the main group today. But unlike the overall race, it remains a tight battle – with Bart de Clercq (Omega Pharma Lotto) just two seconds in arrears.

Saturday’s fourth stage of the Tour of Beijing twice passed by China’s iconic Great Wall, inspiring the riders, it seemed, to create one of their own as they raced towards the line for a wonderful mass finish at the Shunyi Olympic Rowing and Canoeing Centre.

In the end it was Liquigas-Cannondale which negotiated the best path – steering multi-talented Italian Elia Viviani to victory ahead of team-mate Peter Sagan (Slovak Republic).

SaxoBank Sungard’s JJ Haedo followed Viviani and Sagan across the line for third.

For Viviani, it was the 22-year-old track and road star’s eighth race victory for the year and the launching pad, he hopes, for much more to come.

“It is very good for me. It is my only second season as a pro. I am young and I can now hope for the sprints next season in the big races,” Viviani said.

“It was a very fast sprint at the end of a very long stage. The team was fantastic for me.”

The result vindicated Viviani’s decision to continue to train hard after the world championships in Copenhagen a fortnight ago.

But it will also create some doubts in the young rider’s mind about his plans for 2012, given that he is considered his country’s best chance for a track medal at the London Olympics.

“The Olympics for me should be on the track, but maybe now could also be on the road,” he said.

His win would no doubt also have impressed the Giro d’Italia’s new boss, Michele Acquarone, who was at the finish as a guest of UCI President Pat McQuaid.

With the peloton back together a virtually straight 5km run into the finish and a race that had already been ridden at an average speed of over 45kph it was inevitable that the finish would be a torrid affair.

But the story of the race until then had been a six man escape that had formed after just 10km and that lasted until there were just eight kilometres left to ride.

The original break comprised Tiago Machado (Radioshack), Iijo Keisse (Quickstep), Frederik Veuchelen (Vacansoleil – DCM) and Julien Berard (AG2R- La Mondiale) but they were joined soon after by Lampre-ISD’s Damiano Cunego and Team China’s Wang Meiyin, the only successful duo of the many who tried to make the cross from the main bunch.

Their exploits made life difficult for the peloton and ensured that the staged was raced at such a high speed. At one stage their lead extended out to five minutes.

They clearly made an impact, even if in the end their adventure proved fruitless. Race leader Tony Martin (HTC-Highroad) was quick to acknowledge the effect they had on the way the stage panned out.

“The group out in front was really too big and it was not so easy to control the race,” Martin said.

“It took a long time to bring them back. But in the end the team was riding really strong and everything was okay.”

After retaining the leader’s red jersey that he has held throughout the Tour, Martin was confident about what lay ahead.

“I am really happy with the results and situation so far and to once again have the jersey.

“The chance is there to win and tomorrow is not so long,” Martin said.

The breakaways’ adventure also made little impact on the king of the mountains classification. Whilst Machado and Cunego collected most of the points on offer, that was always going to be insufficient to overtake Euskaltel-Euskadi’s Igor Anton, given they had none in the bank to begin with.

Anton now only has to complete tomorrow’s final stage to be assured of the polka dot jersey for the race’s leading climber.

Today’s 189.5km stage began in Yanqing Gui Chuan Square at an altitude of 482m in the Jundu Mountains. After an essentially gentle ride through orchards, vineyards and corn harvests, there were some more testing phases as the two passages by the Great Wall approached.

The twisting descent from the first mountain summit was perhaps the most demanding section of the course – and that in which the break extended to its fullest. But none of it caused too much drama – with both the commissaires and races doctors reporting a crash and injury-free day.

By the time the final sprint in Huairu approached at 22.5km to go, the peloton had responded to the urgency of the situation, stringing out at full gas to dash any chance of a break succeeding for the second day in a row.

As expected, Martin’s HTC team mates were doing a power of work at the helm but until the 8km mark they were eventually content to leave the gap at 30 to 40 seconds.

Then followed a succession of attempts by many teams to set up their favoured sprint men. But in the end lead-out trains meant little as that wall of riders stretched out across the road in sight of the finish.

Viviani’s stage win also placed him in a position to launch an assault for the green jersey during tomorrow’s 118km final stage from another Chinese landmark, Tian An Men Square back to where the Tour began at the Water Cube in Beijing Olympic Park.

Whilst Katusha’s Denis Galimzyanov has taken over the jersey after a fourth place stage finish today, Viviani is just a point behind on 25, level with yesterday’s leader Chris Froome (Sky Racing).

In the young rider classification Radioshack’s Ben King remains in the white jersey for another day, whilst the Team China again made its mark with Wang being declared the stage’s most aggressive rider.

Sky retains the lead it has held in the team’s competition since delivering three men into the top five in day one’s time trial.

Sunday’s final day course can only be described as flat with hardly an undulation between the start and the twelve 8km circuits in the Olympic Park.

With many believing the race on general classification is all but over, the main points of interest will be the three intermediate sprints in the battle for the green jersey and as always the prize of stage win.